There are so many things to be proud of as a Canadian. We have an incredible roster of new fashion and accessory designers who start here quietly, reservedly, until we assure them that they are good enough to explore the rest of the world, and then they run it. We have a brilliant nouveau literary rat pack made up of names like Chrystia Freeland, Lynn Crosbie, Miriam Toews, Joseph Boyden and a slew of others. And triumphantly, as a result of our overly conservative banking postulation, we’ve managed to keep most of our homes, our jobs and a scrap of pride. And yet, somehow, we seem to be the last country to adopt major design trends, we don’t have very many fashion magazines that we can truly stand behind and most U.S. retailers often seem to forget about us all together, until now. Our patriotic Canadian stores are finally starting to feel the settlers of American fashion hone in on their stomping grounds. Nordstrom has announced a Canadian interest, Target just launched nation-wide and Zara has finally answered my prayers and made shopping online available to us canucks. Most recently, Zara launched a #DearCanada campaign where they sent some of Canada’s bloggers, editors and socialites a $100 gift card to their new online store. As one of the most successful fast-fashion retailers in the world, I thought I’d dedicate this post to honour their new Canadian endeavor. Here are the top 10 (fine, 11) items you need to get your spring wardrobe into gear and they are all available at Zara's new Canadian online store.Â